Datto signals continued commitment to European market with investment across the board

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Datto has made good on its previous promise to further support MSPs and help them tap into increased growth in Europe and isn’t planning on scaling back anytime soon.

So claims the firm’s managing director (MD) of EMEA, Mark Simon, who detailed the potential that lies ahead for both Datto and the MSP community and the DattoCon conference in Paris earlier this week.

“There are nearly 1,200 humans in this building today. Half of you have never been to a DattoCon before and you’re in for a treat,” he told the assembled audience, adding that the UK was the most represented country in attendance.

“The journey we’ve been on, we’ve been on together. It’s like we’re on a rocket ship. And it’s a rocket ship that is only half full…. We’ve only just begun,” he added, alluding to the Canalys statistics that show more than half (57%) of European SMBs have not yet embraced managed services.

Simon joined Datto in May 2019 with a remit to help spearhead and deliver on the firm’s growth aspirations outside of its native US. A large part of doing that required him to round out his leadership team and European strategy.

The firm now boasts just shy of 300 employees located in eight offices across the UK, Ireland, DACH, Nordic, and Benelux regions and hiring new talent to add to that pool continues unabated. It will definitely remain a point of quality rather than quantity though as it’s incredibly important to Simon that any new hires help the company stay true to its core DNA.

Datto has had an engineering team located in Copenhagen for some time, but it announced at the conference it plans to build on this set-up with dedicated sales and marketing resource.

Another part is related to infrastructure. To that end, Datto opened a datacentre in Munich recently.

Both of these elements will bolster Datto’s Nordic presence.

“All functions on the ground in Europe, led by Mark, are all focused on supporting you,” Tim Weller, Datto’s CEO told DattoCon delegates.

When Channel Pro spoke to Simon back in June – at the firm’s US conference – he was adamant he wanted to ensure that regional growth was focused on local nuances rather than using a wholesale cookie-cutter approach.

“We have a relentless focus on culture. You don't just try and cookie-cutter what's happening in America and do something everywhere. The truth is, 80% of whatever you do in any large successful business is always the same. However, its that [remaining] 20% that is really important,” he told Channel Pro at the time.

“We’re seeing that how we interact with partners will be different in different markets because they're just very different. But, we are MSP-only and we are fanatical about that.

He continued: “My main priority is making sure we've got the best people. That includes getting the people who are already in the company - a phenomenal group of people - and making sure they succeed. Then also bringing talent in to help us in other countries or other activities within the business. So, really, my key thing is to build a world-class team.”

Maggie Holland

Maggie has been a journalist since 1999, starting her career as an editorial assistant on then-weekly magazine Computing, before working her way up to senior reporter level. In 2006, just weeks before ITPro was launched, Maggie joined Dennis Publishing as a reporter. Having worked her way up to editor of ITPro, she was appointed group editor of CloudPro and ITPro in April 2012. She became the editorial director and took responsibility for ChannelPro, in 2016.

Her areas of particular interest, aside from cloud, include management and C-level issues, the business value of technology, green and environmental issues and careers to name but a few.